


Constellation

by WildWolf25



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddles, Fluff, Gen, Platonic Cuddling, Team Cuddles, they/them pronouns for Pidge, tiny bit of angst as nightmares are involved but nothing very in-depth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 13:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10854537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildWolf25/pseuds/WildWolf25
Summary: Each of them are like stars in the vast, cold, darkness of space.  But when they come together, they form a constellation, and suddenly the world doesn't seem quite so dark anymore.





	Constellation

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting this now but I wrote it, gosh, nine or ten months ago? My email service was eating messages from AO3 (and my grandma, what the heck gmail) so every time I tried to make an account it didn't work, until I tried making one with a different email service. Anyway, I've been staring at this thing forever, so I tried to catch all typos/mistakes, but I may have missed some after being so used to reading it. Also I wrote this way before season 2, when Galra-Keith was still a fan theory, so... I guess it just takes place before season 2 when they learn that.
> 
> Just some good, wholesome, team cuddling. Enjoy!

Shiro woke up in a cold sweat, his right arm aching with phantom pain.  His eyes flitted around in the dark, desperate for something to latch onto, to know that this was real and not another Galra torture session.  His left hand scrabbled for the bedside lamp, finding it and turning it on clumsily in the dark.  The blinding light flooding his senses was well-worth the momentary pain; his room was now illuminated with the soft glow from the small lamp, letting him know that this was real, he was safe, it was just a dream…

Shiro sat up, drawing his legs close and hanging his head between his raised knees.  He took deep breaths, focusing on drawing the air deep into his lungs, holding, then exhaling, holding, then inhaling…  Eventually, his heartbeat slowed and the phantom pain in his arm dissipated.  He sat back up and tipped his head back, staring up at the ceiling.  He didn’t have these nightmares every night; a few nights would go by with nothing by dreamless sleep, and he would start to think maybe, just maybe, it was over.  But then, with no warning at all, the nightmares would come back, slipping their cold fingers around his neck and dragging him back down into that darkness once more. He wondered if things would ever truly get better, or if he would continue having these nightmares plague him for the rest of his life.  

A quiet, timid knock on the door caught his attention, breaking him out of his thoughts.  Had he been asleep, he never would have heard it.  He slid out of bed and padded barefoot over to the door, wondering who it could be.  When he opened it, he found Pidge standing there, shifting their weight nervously.  

“Pidge?”  Shiro blinked, surprised to see them awake at such a late hour.  “You okay?”  

“Shiro, was it…” Pidge broke off, keeping their eyes averted and refusing to look at him as they started again.  “Was it my fault that my brother and father got captured?”

“Of course not.”  Shiro said.  “Why would you think that?”

Pidge shifted their weight, hugging their arms around their own waist.  “I… I had a dream… that it was.”  

Shiro looked down at them for a moment, then stepped back and held the door open.  “Come in.”  

Pidge nodded mutely and followed him inside.  Shiro touched their shoulder and prompted them to sit on the side of the bed, next to him.  

“I dreamed that Dad and Matt had taken an ice sample, and they found something so interesting that they wanted to tell me about it.  They went back to the ship and turned on the communicator, but when they were trying to call me they accidentally crossed lines with a Galra ship that used their signal to hone in on their location.”  Pidge said quietly.  

“Pidge, that isn’t what happened.”  Shiro told them.  “The Galra ship had already decided to come to Kerberos, without knowing we were there.  We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  

Pidge didn’t look up.  “You’re sure you’re not lying to make me feel better?”

“I promise.”  Shiro put a hand on Pidge’s shoulder, squeezing reassuringly.  Pidge seemed to relax a little bit, and they let out a sigh.  They leaned their head on Shiro’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Shiro.”  

Shiro smiled softly down at the other teen and snaked his arm around their shoulders, hugging them from the side.  He felt something bumpy through Pidge’s shirt, and he frowned slightly.  

“Pidge, you’re not wearing a binder when you sleep, are you?”  He asked seriously.

“It’s a sports bra.”  Pidge said quietly, their shoulders curving forward to better hide the slight swell of their chest, something Shiro had noticed they did whenever anyone mentioned their chest.  “It’s safe, I promise.”  

“Okay.”  Shiro nodded and continued rubbing their shoulder in a comforting way.  The repetitive motion helped calm him down from his own nightmare, and seemed to have the same effect on Pidge, so he kept doing it.  He chuckled as he noticed Pidge starting to doze off several minutes later.  

“You wanna stay here tonight?”  He asked.  Pidge considered it, then nodded.  

“I don’t want to be alone.” They said, their voice coming out quiet.  

“You’re never alone.”  Shiro squeezed them a little tighter.  “You’ve got all of us with you now.”  

Pidge smiled weakly.  “Yeah.”  They leaned their head on Shiro’s shoulder again, nudging him gently.  “Same to you too, you know.”

Shiro smiled.  The two of them shifted to lay on their sides, Pidge’s back pressed to Shiro’s front and Shiro’s arms wrapped around them.  Pidge reached over and set their glasses on the bedside table, and Shiro reached for the lamp to turn it off.

“Can we maybe… leave it on?”  Pidge asked hesitantly.  Shiro smiled.

“That’s fine with me.”  He withdrew his hand and instead wrapped it around Pidge’s middle.  “Goodnight, Pidge.”

“Night, Shiro.”   

~~~~~

Shiro had been on the verge of dozing off when he heard another knock on his door.  Sighing a little, he slipped out of bed, being careful not to wake Pidge as he moved.  He yawned as he crossed the room to open the door.  

Keith stood in the hall outside, rubbing his arm and looking down at his feet.  

“Hey,” Shiro greeted him.  “What’s up?”

“Did I wake you?”  Keith asked.  

“Nah.”  Shiro shrugged.  He looked at Keith a little more closely.  “You okay?”

“Can I talk to you about something?”  Keith asked.

“Of course.”  Shiro replied.  “What is it?”

“Anything.”  Keith said.  “I mean, can we just… talk.  About something.  Anything at all.”  He pushed his fingers through his hair, pausing to grip at the strands.  His eyes fell closed.  “My head is just stuffed full of thoughts right now, and it’s keeping me awake.  I can’t sleep.  And I thought maybe going to the observation deck and looking at the stars might help, but it… it didn’t.”  He sighed and opened his eyes.  “I’m tired.  I’m really tired, but I can’t sleep with all these thoughts in my head.  I don’t really know what to do.”

Shiro gave him a reassuring smile.  “I think I have an idea.”  He held open the door and gestured for Keith to come inside.  As he closed the door behind them, Pidge sat up and yawned.  

Keith stopped.  “Oh.  Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt anything—” 

“You didn’t.”  Pidge shook their head.  “It’s totally not like that at all.”

“Pidge had a nightmare, I had a nightmare…” Shiro shrugged.  “We were just keeping each other company.”  

Pidge scooted over, up against the wall.  Shiro laid down next to them, and patted the space next to him.  Keith toed his shoes off and laid down hesitantly, freezing when Shiro wrapped an arm around his shoulders and drew him closer.  

“Is this okay?”  Shiro asked quietly.  Keith considered it.  He certainly wasn’t used to people touching him.  So much of his life had been spent alone, or in the proximity of others but seldom close enough to touch, and certainly never this close.  He had never done this before, but… he kind of liked it, the warmth of someone next to him.  

“Yeah,” He said finally.  Shiro smoothed a hand over his hair, and Keith let his eyes fall closed with a sigh.  Shiro started combing his fingers through Keith’s hair, pausing to scratch lightly at his scalp every so often.  On his other side, Pidge rested their head on Shiro’s chest.  They all lay in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Shiro spoke up again.

“Do you want to talk about it?”  He asked Keith.

Keith opened his eyes and didn’t respond right away.  He needed a moment to get his thoughts together, and pluck one of his worries out of the mass that was swirling around his head.  

“Zarkon said I fight like a Galra soldier.”  He said quietly.  “My hand was able to activate the Galra-tech computer system.  I never knew my parents.  What if… what if  _ I’m _ part Galra?”  

No one said anything for a few moments, and Keith’s heart pounded frantically in fear, but they didn’t kick him out and Shiro didn’t stop touching his hair like Keith had thought he might.  

“It’s statistically impossible for all of any given race to all be bad.”  Pidge said finally.  “In fact, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are fairly arbitrary concepts on their own.  Even if you were part Galra, that wouldn’t automatically make you a bad person.  You’re you.”

“The red lion chose you to be its paladin.”  Shiro added.  “It wouldn’t let someone who isn’t courageous and strong and kind be its pilot.”  

“Exactly.”  Pidge nodded.  They threw a leg over Shiro’s legs and poked Keith in the thigh with their toes.  “Don’t worry so much.”

Keith frowned.  Worrying was what he did.  He couldn’t just stop.  “Easy for you to say.”  He spat the words out unthinkingly.

“Because I haven’t lost things?” Pidge tilted their head up to glare at Keith.  Shiro, who had his arms around both of them, squeezed them.  

“Hey, this is a no-fighting zone.”  He said firmly.  

Keith looked down at their feet.  “I’m sorry.”  

Pidge poked him with their toe again, with less force this time.  “Me too.”  

They were all quiet for a few moments before Shiro spoke up again.

“But, seriously, Keith,” He rubbed his arm soothingly.  “We all care about you.  We love you like family.  Whether you’re actually human or Galra or both… your race could even be space goo, and we would still love you.”  

Pidge nodded in agreement.  Keith felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes and closed them so the others wouldn’t see.  Pidge left the ball of their foot and their toes pressed against Keith’s thigh and Shiro started petting his hair again.  He relaxed, tension he hadn’t realized he had been holding beginning to bleed out.  

A few minutes later, another knock came from the door.  Shiro, who had his arms under Pidge and Keith and his legs trapped under one of Pidge’s, turned his head and called out.  “Come in!”

The door opened and Lance poked his head through.  “Hey Shi— wait what is going on here?”  

“Cuddle pile.”  Pidge answered simply.  Lance stood next to the bed and looked down at them all, hands on his hips and one eyebrow raised quizzically.  

“You know what, I’m not even going to ask.”  He said.  

Shiro looked up at him.  “What’s up, Lance?  You need something?”  

Lance shrugged.  “I have insomnia.  Was wandering around the halls when I saw your light again and thought you might be up.”  He laced his fingers behind his head and turned around, heading for the door.  “If you’re busy, though, I’ll just go…”

“Hold it.”  Pidge reached over Shiro and Keith to grab Lance’s jacket.  “You’re not getting out of this so easy.”

Lance looked down at them in disbelief.  “You can’t think I’ll possibly fit in that bed with you.”

“He’s right, he won’t fit.”  Keith mumbled sleepily.  “We don’t need him.”  

Lance glared at him for half a second before kicking his shoes off.  “You know what?  Count me in.  I’ll do it just to spite you, Mister Grumpy McMullet.”

Keith groaned and Shiro narrowly avoided swearing when Lance climbed on top of all of them, his knee missing Shiro’s groin by mere inches.

“Okay, we’re relocating to the floor.”  Shiro said, carefully sitting up.

“I guess it was a pretty tight fit.”  Pidge said, yawning as they too sat up.  Keith glared at Lance.

“This is all your fault.”

Lance looked indigent.  “ _ My _ fault?  How is it my fault?  You’re the one who was hogging up all the bedspace!”

“I was taking up the absolute smallest possible minimum of physical space.”  Keith told him icily.  “ _ You’re  _ the one who elbowed everyone in the face trying to get back at me in a petty way.”  

Lance opened his mouth again to retort, but Shiro gave them both a stern look.  “Hey, remember, no fighting.”  

Lance and Keith both spared each other another glare before crossing their arms and turning away.  Pidge snorted and helped Shiro spread the comforter and blankets on the floor.  

Shiro laid down and held an arm out for Pidge, who happily resumed their spot curled up beside him with their head on his chest.  He looked at Keith and Lance.  “Can we all just be nice to each other and go to sleep?”  

“Yeah.”  Keith laid down on Shiro’s other side, mirroring Pidge’s position.  

“Fine by me.”  Lance stretched out on his back beside Keith, hands laced behind his head.  He stared up at the ceiling even as the other three closed their eyes.  Damn insomnia.  Well, that was what he was calling it.  He just couldn’t fall asleep; he had too much energy.  He had tried deep breathing, counting sheep, everything he could think of, but nothing worked.  

Several minutes passed in silence.  Then… “Lance.  Seriously.”  Keith turned his head to frown at him over his shoulder.

“What?”  Lance blinked.  Keith narrowed his eyes and even Shiro sighed.  

“Your foot, Lance.”  He said.

Lance looked down and saw that he had started jiggling his foot without noticing what he was doing.  “Oops.  Sorry.”  He planted his foot against the floor and stopped the motion.  Everyone started dozing off, and Lance found he simply couldn’t keep still.  His mind was too awake; he needed some kind of movement as an outlet, something simple and repetitive.    He sighed and sat up.

“Hey, Keith,”

“Mm.” Keith made a sleepy-sounding grunt.

“Can I braid your hair?”  Lance asked.  Keith looked at him over his shoulder.

“Uh, why?”

Lance shrugged.  “Stuff like that helps calm my mind down.  Maybe I’ll be able to sleep.”

“Why me?”

“You have the longest hair.”  Lance said simply.  

Keith considered it – if it would keep Lance quiet so he could sleep, he would try just about anything – before shrugging.  “Sure.  Why not.”  

Lance shifted to sit cross-legged and Keith put his head in his lap, resting on his side with his back pressed to Shiro’s hip.  Lance combed his fingers through Keith’s hair first, the gentle touch surprising him.  He then took a lock of hair up at the top of his head and started to braid, his fingers moving deftly.  

“When did you learn how to braid?”  Keith asked, curious.

“I have a lot of sisters.”  Lance explained.  “As soon as I could tie my shoelaces, they taught me how to braid on pine needles.  You know, those long ones that grow in clumps of three?   Longleaf pine, I think it was.  Ever since I learned, it just sort of… calms me down.  I guess because of the repetitive motion, probably.”

“Hm,” Keith hummed quietly, appreciating the feeling of fingers carefully pushing through his hair.  

A knock came from the door once more.  

“Come in,” Shiro called, opening his eyes and tilting his head back.  

“Hey, what’s going on here?”  Hunk asked, poking his head in the door before slipping inside.  

“Cuddle pile.”  Pidge reached a hand out to beckon him over.  “Join us.”  

“Something wrong, Hunk?”  Shiro asked, tipping his head back to look at him.  

“No, nothing’s wrong.”  Hunk explained.  “I got up to use the bathroom, and I heard talking coming from in here.”  

“Hunk…” Pidge dragged out his name, opening and closing their hand in a grabbing motion.  “Join the cuddle pile.”  

“Yeah, join us.”  Keith said, stifling a yawn.  

“Are you sure you guys want me to?”  Hunk looked uncertain.  “I’m like, a walking space heater.  I don’t want you to get too hot.”  

“That works out, ‘cause I’m kinda cold now.”  Pidge said.  “Get in here.  Paladin cuddle pile.  You can’t escape it.”    

Hunk chuckled and toed off his slippers before lying down.  Pidge rolled over and tossed an arm over Hunk, who wrapped an arm around them in return.  Pidge sighed and snuggled deeper into his warm chest.  Hunk was about to close his eyes when he noticed that Shiro was clenching his Galra-tech hand and that there was a small frown pinching his features.  

“Shiro?  You okay?”  Hunk asked.

The frown vanished as Shiro turned his head to look at him, a tight smile replacing it.  “I’m fine.”

Hunk gave him a flat look and arched an eyebrow up, clearly not convinced.  Shiro sighed in resignation. 

“My arm sometimes aches where it connects to the prosthetic.”  He admitted quietly.  “Usually I can just massage it for a while and the pain will go away eventually, but Keith is on my other arm and I don’t want to wake him up.  It took him so long to fall asleep and I know he’s exhausted…”

“I can do it, if you’re okay with it.”  Hunk offered.  “I’m pretty good at massages.”

“He gave the best massages at the Garrison,” Lance added.  “I fell asleep at my desk doing homework and the next morning my neck was so sore that I couldn’t turn my head, but Hunk fixed me up.”  

Pidge hummed sleepily in agreement.  

Shiro smiled.  “Okay.”  He shifted slightly, letting his elbow rest in the dip of Pidge’s waist and his fingers across his own hip.  Hunk reached up and laid his fingers on Shiro’s bicep where the Galra prosthetic met human flesh, just resting there for a moment before he began squeezing and massaging the muscle with his thumb.  Shiro let his eyes fall closed with a sigh; Hunk’s fingers were warm as they pressed against his skin, coaxing the tense, cold muscles into relaxing.  Whenever he was doing a lot of movement with his hand, the metal felt warm against his skin, sometimes going as far as to feel hot in the middle of a battle.  When he wasn’t using it for a while, though, the mechanical and technological pieces inside cooled and his skin sometimes felt uncomfortably cold where it touched the metal.  That was usually when the muscles started aching, from the cold.  

“Feel better?”  Hunk asked several minutes later, his fingers finally going still.  

Shiro nodded, his eyes still closed.  “Yeah.  Thanks.”

“Anytime.”  Hunk patted his arm before letting his hand rest on Shiro’s bicep, still keeping him warm.  “Lance, buddy, are you planning on sleeping tonight?”  He tilted his head to look at the blue paladin, who still had Keith’s head in his lap and was using his fingers to brush out the braid he had made.    

“Yeah, I’m getting kind of tired.”  He said.  “Maybe in a couple of minutes I’ll lay down.”  

Moments after Lance finished speaking, Keith suddenly stiffened.  His eyes seemed to move rapidly beneath his eyelids and he curled in on himself.  

“Hey, are you awake?”  Lance asked.  “Because I would kind of like to lay down soon, and I can’t do that with your head in my lap.”  

Keith didn’t say anything or move.  Lance frowned.

“Hey, I know you heard me,” he poked him in the cheek.  Keith suddenly flinched and let out a quiet sound that was almost like a whine.  

“He looks like he’s having a nightmare.”  Shiro said, lifting his head to look down at Keith.  

“Do you think we should wake him up?”  Hunk asked, worried.  

“Keith, hey, wake up, dude,” Lance shook his arm gently.  Keith’s hand grabbed his wrist in a vice-like grip and his eyes snapped open.  He looked around, confused for a moment, then let go of Lance.  

“Sorry,” 

“You okay?”  Lance asked, brushing his hair away from his sweaty forehead.  “You looked like you were having a nightmare.”  

“I was.”  Keith pushed himself up, sighing.  “It happens all the time.  Don’t worry about it.  I’m going to get a drink of water.”   

“And then you’re coming back, right?”  Shiro asked.  He didn’t want Keith slinking off to suffer in silence and alone, not when the rest of them were together.  

Keith glanced at him as he got to his feet, as though he could tell what Shiro was thinking.  “Yeah, I’ll come back.  I just need to walk a little bit, shake the dream off.”  

As Keith left the room, Lance stretched and yawned.  “Might as well get comfortable now.  Maybe I’ll be able to sleep if I lay down.”

“That’s generally how it works, yeah,” Shiro teased.  He reached up and hooked his free arm around Lance’s neck, pulling him down to rest his head on Shiro’s chest.

“Oof!”

“Guys, don’t wake Pidge up.”  Hunk chastised them quietly as the smallest paladin scrunched up their nose in their sleep.  

Lance tipped his head back and stuck his tongue out at Shiro, who just chuckled.  Lance made himself more comfortable against Shiro, their bodies perpendicular and Shiro’s arm curled around his chest.  

Keith slipped back into the room a few minutes later, closing the door and padding soundlessly back to the group on the floor.  Without a word, he laid down again, his head pillowed on Lance’s stomach and his body curled around Shiro’s head.  Lance carded his fingers through his hair; his bangs were wet and cold, as though he had splashed cool water on his face.  

“Do you want to talk about it?”  He asked.  Keith was quiet for several long moments.  

“No.”  He said finally, his voice barely above a whisper.  

Lance nodded.  “Okay.”  He could respect that.  There were some things he preferred to talk out, and some that he just wanted to move on from.

Hunk reached up and touched Keith’s calf, his thumb running over the skin there in a soothing way.  Keith sighed.  Walking around had helped, as usual, but coming back to this tangled up cuddle pile had helped the most, chasing the dark fears out of his mind for now.  He touched Shiro’s head, fingers scratching lightly at the short strands of hair of his undercut.  “This seems like it would make your head hurt.”  He commented, referring to the hard floor under Shiro’s head.  

“It’s fine.”  Shiro said.  He could have gotten a pillow from the bed, but the rest of him was too comfortable to move.  It wasn’t the worst place he had slept.  

Keith curled his knees up, lightly bumping Shiro’s head.  “Up,” he told him.  Shiro lifted his head and Keith shifted so that his thigh could pillow Shiro’s head.  Shiro hummed his thanks and settled down.  He didn’t think he had ever felt this warm and comfortable before.  The chilling darkness of the nightmare that had woken him up before seemed very far away now.  Even if it returned, he had this, they all had this; each warm body was like the glow of a star in the vastness of space, light and warmth pushing through the darkness and letting them all know that they weren’t alone.

~~~~~

Allura frowned as she closed the door to Pidge’s room.  How strange… she couldn’t find any of the paladins anywhere, and after checking Lance, Keith, and Hunk’s rooms she was beginning to wonder where they all were.  There weren’t very many places to go on the castle-ship; true, it was a palace, but it was still a spaceship and there weren’t many rooms.  She crossed the hall and headed toward Shiro’s room.  Perhaps he would know where the rest of them were.  That is, if he wasn’t missing himself as well.  In that case, she supposed, she could use the inter-castle tracking radar to locate them.  

She knocked on the door and waited a few moments, her frown deepening as she received no response.  For goodness’ sake, where were those paladins?  She opened the door, wondering if he was perhaps still sleeping, and peered inside.  

Allura blinked as she took in the sight in front of her.  The five paladins were lying in a group on the floor, their limbs tangled around each other.  How interesting; she had thought, from her observation of the Earthling paladins, that humans preferred to sleep alone.  She had read studies of Earth customs that said that humans of certain relations, mostly marital, tended to share the same bed, but never more than two.  Yet here they were, all five of them lying on top of each other in a haphazard pile, like stars in a constellation.  How quaintly disorganized.  She wondered if it was some sort of human bonding custom.  It certainly seemed to be.  They all seemed to have some form of contact with every other person, even if it was small.

Allura smiled as she eased the door shut.  She supposed their training could wait a couple more vargas.       

**Author's Note:**

> The hardest part of writing a cuddle pile is figuring out where everyone's limbs go/ are these positions physically possible.
> 
> Please let me know if you enjoyed it! I have a tumblr, too: wildwolf25.tumblr.com (I need to figure out how links work on here)


End file.
